Vintage Fender 5E3 Tweed Deluxe, the greatest one ever?

[@danielmargolis3210]

As an owner of an original 1955 Fender 5e3 I admire your attention to detail. They are great amplifiers but the potential for a clueless repair person to do damage is real. BTW, I also like Psionic amp repair videos.

[@noel3422]

Ha ha, psionic, nice!!

[@icedog75]

Great to have you back! Couldn't agree more about "Uncle Doug". One of the best repair resources on the web.

[@kbkman7742]

I learned heaps from his channel... perhaps the best resource for people looking to repair or build their own stuff

[@asruiz7360]

Dude - strongly agree. Uncle Doug is a hero and a national treasure.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thanks

[@ant1sokolow]

Uncle Doug is much more than a repairman/technical adviser. He's an artist and a craftsman, an american polymath, a pedagogue( at first you say to yourself "i know that" and then you are happy to have watched until the end), an historian, a counter, a mechanic, an aerial photographer... And he can play guitar.

[@russellesimonetta3835]

Check out Lyle from Psionic Audio. He is very good. He really knows his vox amps and fenders. He is super picky about grounding. He uses fender ground scheme in marshall's!!!

[@asruiz7360]

Uncle Doug and D-lab are my daily digest for this. Uncle Doug’s educational series are on point - the best online.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

We love Doug

[@bevo65]

Texas forever! (Doug lives in El Paso.) 🤠🤘🐂

[@fostexfan160]

@@bevo65 I thought he lived in Arizona?

[@snowtube6739]

I have no idea what I'm looking at, no idea what you're doing and no idea how these things work but absolutely loved watching. Fascinating to watch someone with such skill and experience work on a beautiful amp. Amazing. Thank you.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thanks. Really glad you enjoyed it.

[@nusior]

Super cool. I'm glad I came across another vintage gear channel. And another Uncle Doug fan :D Cheers!

[@Murry_in_Arizona]

Thanks for plugging Uncle Doug! Grossly under subscribed channel even if valve/tube amps aren't your thing U.D. is always a hoot. for an old farts like me, Uncle Doug is a trip down memory lane to High school shop class early 1970's.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Educational and entertaining. We're huge Uncle Doug fans. Credit where credit is due.

[@Murry_in_Arizona]

@@tonetwinstv2863 fyi Rick Beato did a video recently where he used a variac and EVH'ed one of his vintage marshalls finding voltage matters, vintage amps like the original voltage they were built for in the US 110v, 60hz had better tone and "feel" than the current US 120v (my house in west Phoenix the outlets run 123-129v). Power conditioner might be yet another detail in getting classic tone from classic amps.

[@fostexfan160]

@@Murry_in_Arizona Good point.

[@jonnybeck6723]

I can attest to these safety measures... In 1970 with bare feet on a concrete garage floor all sweaty with guitar in hand probing around in the open/exposed amplifier chassis... an old 'Bell' type 6L6 turned on and turned up... I decided to give on of the filter caps a wiggle (touching it's card-board/paper insulator) As the 500 volt charged capacitor discovered I'd be a MUCH quicker path to ground and arced over me which, as I threw my guitar on the ground and got blown back it didn't occur to me how lucky I was to be alive... not much occuring going on at all as my brain was erased... well I hope everyone gets the picture... it's a stupid way to learn a lesson... cheers

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Glad you survived Jonny and We're glad you added this message.

[@mega12ax72]

I can really relate to this when I was 15 I was working on a bear wide-open old Ampeg chassis plugged in while sitting across my bed as a kid I don't know what happened but the next thing I knew I was thrown up against the wall and the amp was on the floor. Beyond that my life is a mystery, kind of like electro shock therapy⚡💥😵⚡😵💥😵⚡💥⚡😵💥😵⚡💥😵 I could swear at the time I thought I could hear the angels singing🎵😇🎶🕊😇⚡💥🎷🎻🎷🎻🎷 🖖🖖🖖

[@Murry_in_Arizona]

I learned from seeing my 6'3" 245 lb father get thrown across the living room when he shorted something on the transformer of a color TV circa 1968 or 9. Funny part was my grandfather (his father) was a service tech (39 yrs) for Montgomery Ward (huge US department catalog store that was "dismembered" and destroyed when Mobil oil bought them in the 1980's) took my grandad all of 10 minutes to fix and Pop never touched another circuit.

[@GazP23]

What a stunning amp. Fascinating video, I know absolutely nothing about electronics but really enjoyed how you explained all of the changes you were making and why. Great video Huw, thank you.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Many thanks!

[@gerryjamesedwards1227]

It sounds glorious! I'm just about to wire up a 5E3 clone in a head cab. I have all the bits bar the power switch, which should arrive on Monday. I can't wait to hear it. I got up the courage to swap out the innards of a Hayden Dual Mofo, so that it's now a 6G2 Princeton, from watching Uncle Doug. Now I've been bitten by the bug, well and truly!

[@bobhewitt5047]

Possibly one of the very best videos you’ve produced Huw ... fabulous!

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thanks Bob. High praise indeed.

[@guyhayton]

Great to see you back (even if it is only one of you 😥). Fabulous video as always 👍🏼

[@garyhoffman1]

Nice work on both the maintenance and playing!

[@davidjennings9253]

What A fantastic video, beautifully presented and great audio test. I found you by accident but will certainly follow you now. I love vintage amps and have a rare 1961 AC30/6 with black control panel and a mint 1965 Fender Vibro Champ both of which sound wonderful. Both are original except for new filter caps and a couple of resistors. I will never part with them, but when I pop off will leave them to my Son. Great work!!!!! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

[@lemonhartsour]

Need to listen to Truth about Vintage Amps podcast! Nothing wrong with using a 2 prong cord on a vintage tweed deluxe!

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Each to their own dude. Here in the UK with 240v coming out of the wall we prefer our amps to be grounded.

[@lemonhartsour]

@@tonetwinstv2863 Fair enough. Should give TAVA podcast a listen, much to learn from Skip Simmons.

[@Andy_Yates]

Another Uncle Doug fan and hobby amp guy. I can attest that you want to be careful when these amps are powered up and use quality leads. I was checking bias in my Marshall 1987 and the insulation on the test lead had melted unbeknownst to me. Getting hit with the full 450V of plate voltage isn't a fun experience! It's good to be patient and power down to move leads like some suggest. It was probably freak thing but you never can be too safe around strong DC voltage! Also as someone that has a 5E3 clone, I also loved this video and seeing how you like to do your input jacks. Clever! Sounds awesome too :)

[@2bikemikesguitartopics145]

Wow that sounded really good at the end and very great playing using all of those guitars. As a young kid back in the 60s I used to watch my dad open up tube radios and televisions and Tinker around with them not having any knowledge or training on his part and sparking and gapping and Klein Screwdrivers across the room. I decided that my future was going to have an education in electronics at that point which I did. I went to college to become an engineering Electronics technologist and I worked 44 years in the industry in various electronics and Aviation companies. Into the 80s less and less really high voltage devices were being worked on because of semiconductor Technologies but there was one job that was a little bit dangerous with microwave guide communications. Rock on.

[@parlance.electricco]

I learned quite quickly as a teenager about working on old tube amps when I absentmindedly touched a live part of a big ol' Vox AC30...

[@kbkman7742]

Those solder suckers are amazing tools... something I wish someone told me earlier was that you really need to keep the iron on the join until the solder is very hot. If you don't heat it enough those things get clogged easily and it's such a pain in the arse

[@kevinoconnell4073]

Another great video Huw! Thank you!

[@Tord79]

Great work! And nice soundtrack, tasty playing👍

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thanks :)

[@petercornell2002]

Great vid, thanks Huw.

[@teaboyuk]

Great video Huw! Sublime playing at well.👍

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thanks mate. Very kind of you.

[@tomrafal3655]

Really useful and informative video. Thank you. 👍

[@CreamyBone]

Uncle Doug and D-lab Electronics (the gentleman's name is Terry) are different channels. However... they're BOTH quite excellent resources of tube amp wisdom 👍

[@giulioluzzardi7632]

Thanks for putting Safety first and being serious about checking correct Earthing.

[@1701nero]

Wee trick for the solder sucker, I usually start by adding some solder to the joint as the heat transfer is a bit quicker.

[@bhg2]

Thanks a lot for those helpful tips! I’m gonna start a similar restoration of an old Peavey Vintage 212. Cheers

[@KleyDeJong]

Great work on a beautiful amp!

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thanks Kley

[@matthewf1979]

The Jupiter yellow caps are very popular for replacing leaky Astrons. They look similar to the Astron caps and the tolerance is sub 5%. Made in the USA too! Those Brown Devil cathode bias resistors are still available too. You can’t go wrong with Sprague Atom electrolytic caps either, F&T’s are also very good. I know a lot of people like to keep the appearance inside and out as original as possible, and I don’t blame them. These old Tweed amps are just killer in every way. I’ve built quite a few 5E3s using a mix of NOS and new components with great success. The absolute biggest thing to get these right IMO is using 1M *LINEAR* pots. The channel interactivity is just killed using modern audio taper pots. I have to order 1M linear CTS pots with splined shafts, remove the wafer and install it into a 1M audio taper CTS pot with the solid brass shaft. They just don’t seem to be available with the solid brass shaft.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thanks Matt. That's very interesting info on the pots.

[@matthewf1979]

@@tonetwinstv2863 as you know, Fender schematics in the Tweed era were just plain wrong when compared to original amps. They got the bulk of the circuit correct but there were very important tone shaping modifications left out. Stuff like the phase inverter/presence circuit in the 5F6A is probably the most well known difference. Almost every single 1 Meg volume pot I’ve seen and had people check (60ish amps, it’s a hobby!)has been a linear pot in 1958 and up amps. I don’t think anyone really cared back then, besides the old audio taper was closer to a linear pot than our modern audio taper. If you ever want to learn about original 5F6A amps, Milstap on KZbin has great videos of two originals.

[@epajanssen]

If I may add, you may be referring to the modern audio pots, which have a 10% taper. There are however plenty of 30% taper audio pots around these days. Yet I’ve noticed a couple of times that original amp schematics weren’t quite right!

[@Breuschling11]

Greetings from Elkton, Maryland, Huw! That was fascinating to watch - very informative and the amp sounds stellar. Well done, brother!

[@chrisdrake447]

Lovely job once again, Huw. May not be the place here, but one thing that’s always mystified me is why/ how the values of components affect the sound, in this case at 5:47 why the bass response might be tighter at 22uF rather than at 16uF. Happy to be pointed at a layman’s (or simpler) level explanation... cheers!

[@gerryjamesedwards1227]

The 22uF filter caps will reduce the sag on high power demand, and bass frequencies take more power than higher ones, hence the change (reduction) in the coupling caps (signal caps, Hugh calls them here) which reduces bass and 'tightens up' the tone. The Edge's sig version of the Tweed Deluxe has smaller coupling caps as standard.

[@bernhardnizynski4403]

Great presentation!

[@6stringsandthetruth]

I love your videos. Great stuff.

[@steveburroughs7343]

Nice one Huw

[@MrBeblis]

We strictly use Mallory caps here at our shop, they are very reasonably priced and outperform caps 5x their price.

[@thewagnalls1970]

The 125A1A output transformer is a big part of the sound of that one. I think that Fender started using it in late '59, and it's the same one they used in the brown and blackface Deluxe amps. More high end and less midrangey, but very beautiful. That sound can be duplicated in a build if you have a properly made replica of the 125A1A in any tweed Deluxe. The problem is that most transformer manufacturers don't actually clone it properly. That's a very beautiful amp amp, thanks for posting.

[@A_A_ron-Phillips]

Louis Buster Amp

[@thewagnalls1970]

@@A_A_ron-Phillips What about it?

[@A_A_ron-Phillips]

@@thewagnalls1970 - Check it out. Best 5e3 tweed I ever played and ever heard.

[@TheKevinm1977]

Lovely video. Thanks for doing that.

[@LennyJohnson5]

Great video, as always. Your expertise and enthusiasm is so impressive and inspiring.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@diceman220]

Great information. Thanks for sharing.

[@profissaoglobal2]

This is art!!!!

[@davearooney]

"Just to recap...". Brilliant. :)

[@tonetwinstv2863]

As Captain Mainwaring would have said, I was wondering which one of you would be the first to spot that ;) H

[@chrisruef9221]

Your video's are therapeutic.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thanks

[@asruiz7360]

And elaums1894. Watching him handwire his small amp build is oddly cathartic.

[@erajad]

Beautifully presented, shot, worked, and played! I so enjoy these videos. Interested you left the cab completely alone: no point messing with that? or might that come in future? And what a great idea/service/business from Ed - hope it's a great success!

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thanks for the kind comments. I could re-tweed it in the future if Ed wants that, but sometimes old amps and guitars that have been modded are so cool, we prefer to leave them as they are.

[@erajad]

@@tonetwinstv2863 Thanks for the reply! I was thinking more of just stripping off the shellac (?) (varnish?) and ... waxing, gun-oiling or something. But yes, leaving "as is" has its own appeal! (And it does look lovely, IMO.)

[@guitarsword1]

Fantastic lesson in amp restoration. Excellent player too. I’ve subscribed .

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Many thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@Emil-Antonowsky]

Fascinating stuff.

[@antonioreinagutierrez533]

Qué maravilla! Thanx for the vídeo.

First viewing! Great explanation! Greetings from Hollywood California.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Greetings!

[@deeem-tee799]

Thank you for the post! Any pedals used or straight from guitar to amp ?

[@RsqSqr]

I m back again, coz it's damn good

[@Scaredycat-dad]

Always a good day when a tone twins video comes out! Most of that was above my pay grade but I still enjoyed it. Do you have a list of the guitars that are behind you? You, the different guitars and that amp sound wonderful.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Hi Dave, good to hear from you. From the left we have an 1983 Greco with real PAFs, 1957 Strat, 1956 ES225, 1960 Gretsch Anniversary/6120 conversion, 1962 ES330, 1963 Strat, 2005 Dearnaley Taff Delta

[@jeffsutton3674]

Awesome!!!

[@SuperParve]

Awesome

[@jonnybeck6723]

Have you any amp designs or tweeks You've been developing? Nice playing BTW and... cheers

[@timjx3675]

Great video. Does anyone know who does a 5E4 kit or perhaps mods a 5F4 ? Thx

[@harrypalmer3481]

Great video, good info & nicely edited. .. & appropriate plug for Uncle Doug, he's a Cat! I've learned a few things from him.

[@ronfrey5327]

excellent video loved every second of it. working with bassmans this week to get sound and bias set on 3 of those at once..if one settles the #2 amp was made same time so likely same issue preventing sound on #2 amp and possibly 3. I ran the original through a 150 watt amp with differrent iron and glass and the result was flagship. so the last repair is kt88 amp it started clicking then no sound praying transformer did not roast no smoke or burn smell but no sound either.. that is up next so when both 50s are working 100% they can feed the 150s one 6550 one kt88 whats better then one flagship ? two of course... Ed sounds smart im doing the same thing with axe 2 and 3 ..

[@trinityflow]

Nice job. Sounds great. Love Marshall and VOX but Fender is my favorite.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Thanks!

[@bishlap]

A Broken in Jensen speaker is a different breed than a new one... always give that "new" Jensen time to work its Magic.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

We've given some years, still not up to the old ones in our ears

[@richclayton5785]

Would have liked to see your amp settings on the sound tests. Being that the two volumes and the tone all work in concert with each other no matter which channel the guitar is plugged into. Especially would like to know which of the four inputs were used and was there a jumper cable? If so what combination(s) were you using?

[@electricj5]

What is the tone difference between Mallorys and Jupiters?

[@fredscott7534]

I thought the biasing of a single-ended amp was supposed to be at 90% of maximum plate dissipation. 6v6 would be at 14 maximum plate dissipation. That would mean 90% would be roughly 12.6 watts.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

It's not single ended, it's push/pull cathode biased. 100% is ok in this context, but I'm playing it safe by biasing it a tad under 100%.

[@epajanssen]

Lovely video Huw! I bet that amp is sounding quite a bit better now and will last another long time. Interesting that you like a 220 ohm cathode resistor, while some to bump that one to say 270 to cool it down a bit. Isn't it running too hot now? And, still preferring the 5A3 now?

[@tonetwinstv2863]

With cathode bias amps you can run them at 100% and I'm running them slightly under, so that's fine I think. Ed prefers his tweeds biased hotter rather than cooler and understands the valves won't last as long. Regarding the 5A3, it's all shades of excellence, but for day to day use I still love my 5A3 best of all.

[@epajanssen]

@@tonetwinstv2863 Cheers Huw! Makes perfectly sense really. The 5E3 seems not as bass heavy as some clones I’ve heard. Is the output transformer much different to the earlier ones? It sounds truly great...

[@steveg219]

Very informative- thanks!

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Very welcome!

[@ThePandaProcrastinates]

Really enjoyed this. Is that the Greco in the ending jam?

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Yes it is. Same one that just featured on Guitar.com

[@ThePandaProcrastinates]

@@tonetwinstv2863 Sounds awesome! I was following your refinish online and in the magazine!

[@qddk9545]

So now it is basically a new amp :-) But it sounds very good. Sometimes it is funny to see things from a wider perspective. Here in Denmark we get most audio equipment delivered with the plugs I think is called Schuko plugs. They have 2 male plugs and a hole in the middle that extends to the sides, which means that the wall receptor needs to have a male ground plug, or some ´grabs´ to establish the ground connection. But we don´t use that kind og receptors here, so we will almost never have a proper ground connection anywhere. It is possible to buy converter plugs with a male ground plug that fits into our standard receptors, but almost no one uses them. And it seems that no one seems to care about that. So much to personnel security. But Audiophiles buy super expensive power cables for their high-end systems, because it is very important that the last meter of the miles and miles of long cheap cable is of a very high quality.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Well, it does still have it's original cabinet, transformers, pots, knobs and wiring. The amp is almost 60 years old and things wear out and become unsafe. And Fender designed these things to be easily repaired - which is why there will be more fully functioning 100 year old 5E3s than Blues Juniors ;)

[@jonnybeck6723]

Nice bit of cherrying out a 5E3 ...which'll no doubt get used

[@tjnugent62]

Are you the guys from Guitarist who do the videos together?

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Huw writes for Guitarist and Ed writes for Guitar.com.

[@tjnugent62]

Thanks,I really enjoy their videos. Merry Christmas!@@tonetwinstv2863

[@davidcruz4611]

What are you using for reverb and overdrive?

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Any reverb would be a Universal Audio EMT plate plug in. The overdrive is the amp. No pedals used in the recording.

[@joemacmods]

Nice

[@stevereid5944]

Brilliant , shot nicely and amp and playing sound great . But why put ads every 2 minutes .. was so close to closing the tab , dunno if I can endure more of your channel videos because of that . Even though I love your content .

[@tonetwinstv2863]

KZbin premium is Ad free, in the meantime enjoy all the free content we provide

[@kilgoretrout321]

I always wonder about what the tech who did the "scruffy" mods would say in their defense upon watching a video like this one. Probably that they didn't quite know what they were doing, or that they had limited parts access, and they did their best to make the amp sound good despite being out of stock

[@RsqSqr]

Any one can build one with the reasonable price but good quality ?

[@anthonysilva5312]

How is a 1961 transformer original to a late 50’s amp ?

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Because on closer inspection it turned out to be an early 1961 amp. And the power and output transformers are from the 42nd and 46th week of 1960 respectively. Plus there was the date stamp on the label. Click on the Amplifier Overview link in the description and it will take you to the relevant section of the video.

[@TheChadPad]

22:48 "just to recap" No pun intended

[@tonetwinstv2863]

We can't believe you're the only person to pick up on our sophisticated and entirely intentional pun ;)

[@averyadrian1534]

To each his own... but I prefer my Dr.Z Remedy with mojotone BV30H - This amp sounds congested

[@Tonetwisters]

I am not a repair expert by any means; but I have never heard anything good about those IC capacitors in terms of lastability.

[@Qsamscorp]

Intro sounds like mark knopfler 😂

[@jonathanking7594]

Awesome Huw - what can’t you fix? 😂

[@tonetwinstv2863]

I'll refer you to my wife Jonathan. She's probably better placed to answer that ;)

[@chokkan7]

Wales? Are you sure it's not 'Wails'? Just joshing...good video. That Deluxe wasn't bad, but my '59 is just...better...way better...keep looking...maybe you'll find a good'un someday.

[@jordan390a]

Good job dumping those IC caps....I call them Illegitimate Capacitors...!

[@randallabracadabra]

You should have used a polyester film and foil type, not the metalized polyester 150M Mallory caps. The Jupiter Red Astron replicas, 6PS Orange Drops or the SoZo Blue Molded caps would have been a better choice for an accurate 50's tweed tone.

[@tonetwinstv2863]

In your opinion. Ed and I both love the sound of Mallory 150 caps. But we respect your right to differ - H

[@randallabracadabra]

Yea. but do you honestly prefer the bright tinny transparent tone of the 150M caps over the colorful, warm and excellent drive character of the original type? To me it's like a night and day difference and the drive character really suffers with the 150M, especially with the already slightly harsh breakup of a 6V6 tube.

[@joeltunnah]

I used Jupiters in my Princeton build, just for looks tbh. But I first had M150s in there, and I can’t hear any difference. Also rebuilt a ‘56 Gibson GA6 using 150s, and it sounds glorious. But then I’ve never been a cork sniffer.

[@noel3422]

Ok whatever, not close to a vintage deluxe amp but I digress, agree to disagree, my bad.

[@noel3422]

I guess all amps are deemed safe if they have no tone.

[@russellesimonetta3835]

Ohhh those I C caps aren't very good. They won't last long You should put in F and T!!

[@joeltunnah]

Anyone who needs to hear 5 minutes of safety lecture has no business being inside anything that plugs into the wall, period.

[@skullheadwater9839]

wouldn't a 1960 date mean its a brownface?

[@tonetwinstv2863]

Not necessarily

[@johnmiller9219]

Blackface is king. Let Bonamassa buy up all the tweeds we dont need them

[@noel3422]

Sacrilege, playing a gibson on a vintage fender, shame shame, lol.